St. Aidan’s Sermons
Winnipeg, Manitoba
The Rev. Canon Dr. Brett Cane, January 23, 2011
Epiphany 3; 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. Holy Communion
The Suffering Servant #2:
“The True Israelite and Faithful Disciple”
Isaiah 49:1-7; 50:4-9a
Opening Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you came amongst us as the Suffering Servant; help us now, by your Holy Spirit, to see your role as the True Israelite and Faithful Disciple and grasp the implications of that for us that we, too, might walk in truth and live in faithfulness as the servants of our Father in heaven. Amen.
Introduction
Last week I asked if you had ever wondered how Jesus discovered who he was and what his mission was to be. I said that my belief is that he discovered his identity and purpose by reading Scripture. I said that the Holy Spirit would have been active within him to convict him of the Father’s heart and will for him as he read the Hebrew Bible – especially from the book of Isaiah. I then went on to explain that he received particular insight from four mysterious passages scattered throughout Isaiah 40-55 known as the “Servant Songs.” It is these “songs” that we are exploring this Epiphany in our sermon mini-series I have entitled “The Suffering Servant.”
I also explained that knowing who Jesus was and what he came to do is the way we come to see who we are and what we are called to do. We are his adopted brothers and sisters and we have been sent out into the world as the Father sent him (John 21:21). Like Jesus, we, too, receive our affirmation and call as we hear God speaking to us through Scripture.
Last week we looked at the first “Servant Song” (Isaiah 42:1-9) and discovered that the Servant to come, Jesus, is the Greatest Prophet. Like Moses, he is a prophet leader, a king-figure chosen and anointed by God with the Holy Spirit who will bring God’s Law and Truth not only to his people but the whole world. What’s more, his ministry will be one of grace which will open people’s eyes, set captives free and release prisoners from darkness. Finally, we saw that this greater-than-Moses doesn’t just give the law or call people back to the covenant of God with his people: he is the covenant! There is something about this person that makes him the key to the establishment of justice with grace which is to be the hope of the world. That something we continue to explore as this week we turn to the second and third Servant Songs where we discover that the Servant is the True Israelite and Faithful Disciple.
The True Israelite
In order to grasp the impact of what is being said in these songs, we need to step back and look at God’s over-arching purposes. I have often said that in the first two chapters and the last two chapters of the Bible, everything is just as God designed things to be – what happens in the 1,185 chapters in-between is how we fell away from God’s design for us and our role in the world and then how, out of his love, he has mounted a great rescue plan for us to be restored to his purposes for us. A key element in that plan is his choosing one person, Abraham, from whom to create a people, Israel, who would begin to think his thoughts and live out his design for us. It is through Israel that God reaches out to draw the whole world back to himself. This is the meaning of the promise and call to Abraham in Genesis 12: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing…and all peoples one earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2-3). Israel’s purpose is further clarified when he says in Exodus, “You will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). The job of a priest is to be a go-between – to bring the people’s needs before God and God’s desires before the people. As such, they need to be holy – demonstrations of the life God is calling the world to embrace.
This was Israel’s call and thus is described as God’s servant as we saw last week: “But, you, O Israel, my servant. Jacob, whom I have chosen, you descendents of Abraham my friend…I said, ‘You are my servant’; I have chosen you and have not rejected you” (Isaiah 41:8-9). But we also saw last week that Israel is a failed servant – an so are we who have been grafted in to God’s people by faith in Jesus: “Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send…you have seen so many things but have paid no attention, your ears are open but you hear nothing” (Isaiah 42:18-20).
In Isaiah 49 (1-7), the Second Servant Song, the Servant is identified with Israel: He said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendour” (verse 3). However, at the same time, the servant also has ministry to Israel: “And now the Lord says – he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself…my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept” (verses 5, 6). Because the Servant is called Israel – he is contrasted with the nation itself; the nation was supposed to bring God’s light but they had failed. The one in whom the Lord will be glorified is the only one to deserve the name Israel – he alone is the True Israelite. Thus the Servant is the head of Israel as a nation-representative and it is in him that the whole nation will be reconstituted and recalled to its God-given task. Israel is referred to as “God’s vine” in the Old Testament (Psalm 80:8-16; Isaiah 5:1-7) so when Jesus says, “I am the true vine” (John 15:1), he is claiming this role. It is as we are grafted into him as branches in the vine that we become part of God’s people, his family. We can see Jesus’ significance as the True Israel by picturing an hourglass. We begin with Abraham and the 12 patriarchs who become the 12 tribes and nation of Israel. Due to failure, God’s people are reduced to one tribe, Judah and then, when they sin, they are narrowed down to the remnant returning from the Exile. They do not fulfil God’s call either and so the only true Israelite who fulfills God’s call is left – Jesus. Then, due to his obedience, from him comes the reconstituted people of God, beginning with the 12 disciples, who expand into the Jewish Church which then becomes the world-wide Church. This is affirmed in today’s passage when it says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (verse 6). In and through Jesus, the one True Israelite, God’s original mission to Abraham to bless and rescue the world is accomplished!
Well, what does all this say to us? It tells us that Jesus is the focal point of the whole of human history! It tells us that we are to uphold the truth about who Jesus is and what he has done at all costs. It is no mistake that the major part of the Nicene Creed we say every week focuses on Jesus – who he is and what he has done. However, when we focus on Jesus we do not neglect the Father. When we hear that “He made my mouth like a sharpened sword…he made me into a polished arrow” (verse 2) we see that not only does the servant speak God’s word to us he is God’s word. He is God’s communication to us – not only to challenge and call us back to God but to reveal what God is like. This Servant is the one “In whom I will display my splendour” (verse 3). Of no human prophet is it ever said that God will be glorified in him. In other words, people see God in the Servant. This is behind Jesus’ affirmation on the night before his passion, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you” (John 17:1). What is going to glorifying God, to reveal his splendour, who he is at his very heart? – it is about to happen through Jesus on the cross. There, God was revealed to us as total self-giving love. Take away all his omnipresence, omniscience, omnipotence and what are you left with? – the Creator who dies for his creatures that they might not perish but live – he is total self-giving love. The Servant, the True Israelite reveals God to us.
The Faithful Disciple
Now, the reason the Servant – Jesus – can be the True Israelite is because he has been the Faithful Disciple. In him, we see lived out perfectly God’s plan for being truly human. We turn to the third Servant Song to see what this looks like.
1. The Servant is teachable: “The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away” (Isaiah 50:4-5). The Servant here is teachable – a disciple; he is governed in what he hears and speaks. Jesus declared, “I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me” (John 8:28). Jesus enfleshed God’s Servant as a perfect learner. This is not just absorbing information, but acting in obedience. The Servant here is said to be “not rebellious” (verse 5) – as we so often are – he does not just listen but agrees with what he hears and lives accordingly. If Jesus was a learner, then how much more should we be! The passage speaks of the servant “wakening morning by morning” – what could be more explicit than a call to begin our days with God in his word and in prayer. We are called to be teachable – to be learners; to hear and act on what we hear. What’s more, this is not just for our benefit – it is to equip us for our mission. The Servant is given “the word that sustains the weary.” As we follow in Jesus’ footsteps, we need to receive the word from God in order to give the word to others. God’s Servant is teachable – are you?
2. The Servant suffers: Secondly we see that discipleship involves suffering. Back in the second song, we saw that the Servant is subject to frustration and disappointment – “I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all” (49:4). It goes on to speak of the Servant as “Despised and abhorred by the nation” (49:7). The very people the Servant is sent to not only reject the message but reject the messenger. Faithful discipleship includes seeming defeat and discouragement and deep antagonism. But there is more – in the third Song, we read of physical humiliation and violence: “I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting” (50:6). It is amazing that people’s anger at God and his message can be displayed so violently but it is a tragic reality. Violence against God’s people is going on at this very moment – the recent violence against Christians in Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan, to name only three more publicised situations – is merely the tip of the iceberg. Here in Canada, we do not experience this extreme antagonism – so can we not endure the milder prejudices and rejections we experience? As the Servant suffered, so must we – in order to be obedient to God’s plan. We shall see this took place supremely on the cross when we look at Isaiah 53 next week.
3. The Servant is encouraged: We take heart from the fact that, in these songs, the Servant is encouraged and ultimately vindicated. In Isaiah 49, the Servant’s initial work with Israel seems to have been a failure, but God vindicates him by giving him an even greater and wider task – to become “a light to the Gentiles” (49:6). I experienced this when I saw my seven years of work at a camp to make it more Christ-centred were dashed by new leaders who disagreed with my ministry. Disheartened, I was encouraged by friends to begin a new ministry – travelling teams running Day Camps, which in the ensuing years have reached out to over 25,000 children. The estimate is that about 2,500 of those have made Jesus their special friend and the impact on the young leaders involved has been phenomenal in terms of upbuilding the Church world-wide. The Servant affirms that God will come through in the long run: “Yet what is due me is in the LORD’s hand, and my reward is with my God” (49:4). He is told that “Kings will see you and rise up, princes will see and bow own” (49:7). In Isaiah 50, the Servant affirms that “Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced…I know I will not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near…It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who will condemn me?” (50:7-9). This encouragement supported Jesus in the depth of his rejection and suffering and it is ours to claim as well. With the Roman Christians martyred in the Coliseum to those burnt alive in their churches today – we cling to the promise that we will be vindicated and shown to be in the right in throwing in our lot with the Crucified, the Faithful Disciple.
The Servant’s Confidence
Before we close, there are some verses here we have not touched on which underlie the confidence expressed by the Servant. Both of these Songs, unlike the other two, are in the first person singular and more intimate: “Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name…in the shadow of his hand he hid me…he formed me in the womb to be his servant” (49:1, 2, 5). “The Sovereign Lord has given me…he wakens me…the Sovereign Lord has opened my ears” (50:4-5). In the first Song, we saw that the Servant was chosen and elected (42:1) – he is beloved; here is called from the womb – he is predestined and fashioned by God from the beginning. What’s more, being “hidden in God’s hand” (see Psalm 17:8) is part of the Servant’s armour. His close relationship with God is the key to his confidence.
We, too, can have the same confidence. Using the same language from Isaiah 42 and 49, Ephesians tells us, “He chose us in Christ before the creation of the world…In love he predestined us to be adopted as his children through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:4, 5). Ephesians goes on to tell us that, as believers, we have inherited everything given to Jesus beginning with the Holy Spirit and finishing with his power and authority. Because of this and many other passages in the Bible, we are now justified in applying the Isaiah passages to ourselves. God tells us we are his servants, his chosen, in whom he delights. God has taken hold of our hand; we are the light of the world through whom Jesus shines. We are the ones through whom God releases the power of Jesus to open the eyes of the blind, the free the captives and release those imprisoned in deep darkness. Knowing who we are in Christ gives us confidence to live lives of faithful discipleship: we become teachable; we endure suffering; we receive encouragement. Most of all, living the life of a servant, we display God’s splendour to others – they see God through us.
All this is demonstrated in the description of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet at the Last Supper: “Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet” (John 13:3-5). Jesus the True Israelite and Faithful Disciple could serve in humility because he had confidence as the Father’s beloved. So are you. Go and do likewise.
